This past weekend, the Villanova baseball team had two losses, by margins of 3-1 and 12-2, and a 3-3 tie on the road against Tulane University. 

Despite the loss, the first game on Friday, Mar. 18 had a promising start in the first inning. A fielding error took place on a base hit from Jack O’Reilly, allowing Chris Rotondo to advance to third and make his way across home plate to secure a 1-0 lead. 

The Wildcats then went scoreless for the next eight innings while the Green Wave scored once in the fourth to tie it up and then twice more in the seventh to make the game 3-1. O’Reilly went 3-4, making him the only Wildcat to have a multi-hit day. Cole Patten pitched his second-longest outing of the season at seven and 1/3 innings, allowing three runs on eight hits. Cameron Mathes came in for relief in the eighth with one on and one out. He struck out the first batter but then gave up two walks before striking out the last batter to end the scoring for the Green Wave. Despite the strong pitching from Mathes, the Villanova offense could not string together enough offense to make the comeback. 

On Saturday, Mar. 19, the Wildcats had several highlights despite suffering a 10-run loss. Rotondo was strong in the first three innings, scoring both runs. In the first, he led off the inning with a walk, eventually scoring on a two-out single. In the third, he cracked a 404-foot home run over the right-center field fence. Rotondo, now batting .383 with a 1.143 OPS through the first 16 games of the season, currently has a career-high 15-game hitting streak. O’Reilly had a productive game as well, going 2-4 with a double and a first inning RBI to raise his average to .262. 

However, despite Rotondo and O’Reilly’s efforts, the Wildcats trailed 2-1 at the end of the third inning and eventually 5-2 heading into the bottom of the fourth. The Green Wave then scored six runs in the bottom of the fourth to put the game out of reach. Tyler Arella was relieved in this inning by Chic DeGaetano after going a season-high three and 1/3 innings on 71 pitches. 

The Green Wave scored one more run in the seventh to make the score 12-2. Pat O’Neil had a single for the Wildcats, and Joey Castellanos and AJ Hansen also had hits during the game. 

The final game in the series on Sunday, Mar. 20 resulted in a tie. The scoring didn’t begin until the second for both teams, when John Whooley hit an RBI single to score O’Reilly and get the ‘Cats on the board. Will Reiner kept the momentum going later in the inning when he hit an RBI double and scored Whooley before the Green Wave answered in the bottom of the second with two runs of their own to tie the game.

In the bottom of the fifth, the Green Wave scored another run, making it 3-2. However, in the top of the seventh, Rotondo came to the rescue with a double, later scoring on an RBI single from Castellanos. 

     After nine and half innings, both teams remained scoreless, resulting in a 3-3 tie. Brandon Siegenthaler went four and 1/3 innings, allowing seven hits and three runs. Danny Wilkinson relieved him for three and 2/3 innings, and Mathes rounded out the game. 

     The Wildcats are back on the road this weekend against the University of Richmond, where Rotondo will look to continue his hot hitting streak and lead the Wildcats to a win.